Crazy quotes? Regretting buying your fixer upper? Join me in home renovation rants!

[Yemelade]

Some of you might remember me from my house sprucing (low level, manageable DIY) thread where I was preparing to sell up my old house.

That purchase is now complete, and we are now semi-regretful owners of a run down fixer upper.

I dillegently made a spreadsheet and researched possible prices of work needed. New roof, kitchen, bathrooms, windows. Its essentially a money pit. IIinitially, prior to purchase, thought we had a healthy budget at 62k, but have quickly realised this is nowhere near enough.

Please join me in rants, woes, discoveries and doom. It would be good to hear from anyone in a similar boat so that my colleagues are no longer plagued by this regularly! I am in North East UK.

X

Turns out our wall quote is actually not all that unreasonable so we have approached neighbours (who asked us to get it fixed) to see if they will share the costs. It is a shared wall as far as i can tell so I am hopeful.

Bloody hell OP, you're doing well! You've done so much work there. I don't know if you're as sentimental as me, but the house must be breathing a sigh of relief that it's getting the attention it deserves.
I wonder if anyone here's ever had a go at plastering? I fear it's one of those things that people on Insta have no trouble mastering, but I'm pretty sure I'd make a mess of it...

You are all doing so well!

Mine is never ending. I'm 4 months in and it's not finished because to save money, I'm fitting in with other jobs. I need to put another coat on the walls and ceilings tomorrow.

I too want the kitchen done by Christmas. It's not a huge job as it's just a jewel kitchen but I bet there's all sorts lurking under the FULLY TILED walls ...

The bit that's getting me down is it's impossible to keep this house clean in this state. Everywhere I look something needs doing or cleaning.

The cleaning is frustrating. My bathroom will get finished in two weeks and then I'm finally going to give the skirting boards and everything a deep clean as the major work is done until I can save more money.

Thank you! How is your garden? Hopefully looking absolutely nothing like mine. Its a struggle to enjoy the sunshine when your garden looks like this! I just face the neighbours fence and pretend it doesn't exist 😂 we can hopefully start getting rid of rubble and levelling it all back out now though within next few weeks!

Yes, i have those "days off" too. I work full time but also a carer for my younger sibling. Yesterday spent 2.5 hours doing life admin stuff for them, and then catching up on my own housework. And a couple hours helping hubby dig trenches again (luckily all digging now complete!) Then spent the remainder of the day feeling guilty for not actively "doing" something. Today I'm supposed to be "not doing anything" but the plasterer is here and its really difficult to sit quietly and relax to be able to read etc when you hear scraping and machine noises every 5 minutes 🤭 I've taken to reviewing expenses and panicking about our budget instead!

Good luck! Keep us posted. Always makes sense for neighbours to contribute when they're reaping a shared benefit too!

I am so glad you said this. This is the biggest difference I have notice so far.

I think I would need to start a whole new thread about the history of this home (I won't go too much into it because you never know who is reading and there are living relatives still, but the man who lived in it wasnt very nice and abused his children). The spiritual/feeling/vibe of the house was so dark and overbearing when we came to view initially, that we very nearly didn’t offer because it had a dark energy. My husband kept telling me it was the dark wood and lack of light. But it had plenty windows, I don't ever let paintwork put me off projects, and we initially viewed last summer when it was a bright sunny day. I have never had any premonitions or "bad feelings" before, but our first visit I felt like crying and running, and told my husband that bad things must have happened here. But something kept pulling us back and we realised the area and size of the house couldnt be replicated anywhere else on our budget. We have since learned from neighbours the specific details of the types of awful things have indeed happened here, which explains claw marks in ceilings, locks on the outside of doors etc. We also came across some photo negatives of a cross/shrine like structure in the garden which is now covered by a large concrete fountain (frantically searching to see if i still have the photo to attach!), and this is surrounded by giant hog weed. Which, if you don't know, is a plant not native to the UK, and our surveyor told us is usually used by people who don't want people down the line "digging things up" or strangers accessing your property. I am naturally concerned that I will end up uncovering human remains down the line, but DH tells me the photo was probably to memorialize a beloved pet. We will see!

I love the physical changes we have made, but by god everything feels uplifted and the the atmosphere is so much less heavy since moving in. No sage needed, just stripping absolutely everything out!

Ps, we tried plastering. Not for us! Took too long, knacked my arms, and most the plaster was drying in the bucket before I had even had the chance to put it on the wall. DH has managed to get a good finish over channels that were chiseled for new electrics though. Hopefully will avoid the need to replaster the whole house!

Found a plasterer who comes well recommended and charges £150 per day, hoping he will have our kitchen skimmed by Wednesday at the latest. Seems worth it for how hard it was for us, and how bad the finish would likely be 😆

Fingers crossed for you too getting your kitchen done for Christmas! 🤞

Hopefully your walls aren't too bad under the tiles. But I've seen many videos online where the walls basically come down with the tiles! Eek. Manifesting flat dry walls underneath for you and tiles sliding off like butter 😂

The DUST. omg I have this battle daily. We have acquired so many different pairs of crocs. Made DH put a temporary wall and door up into our living space upstairs (living in a couple bedrooms whilst we do the rest of the house) and even put a welcome matt outside to wipe off dust each time we come in. And we've broken TWO hoover in 2 months only using hoover in these 2 bedrooms. Debris and dust are everywhere, all of the time. The kettle needs cleaned daily, sometimes 3-4 times a day. The bedding only even smells clean on day one. I am pretty sure there is a dust cloud when I sit on the edge of the bed. My face and scalp are constantly dry. I mop the floor everyday and it is still covered in dust every day. Some days there is no renovation work happening, but dust still appears. Most of the time I just stare at it and get a bit teary because I'm stuck in an infinite loop!!

I think we will reach this stage in October. All big works shoukd be done by then, downstairs flooring in, so we can deep clean and start living in it whilst we save to do upstairs. I would have loved to do everything together but unfortunately the budget doesnt stretch to that! And materials and trades are much more costly than we could ever have dreamed.

Glad your bathroom will be finished soon!

😂 We are 12 years in to our fixer upper and still have the kitchen and 1 room to go.
We were set back by covid and supply prices/availability however. Everyone loves our house (it's very quirky, stunning views and has been sympathetically done) but sometimes I wish we could move then I look at the price of houses for the similar size, cost of land tax (scottish stamp duty) along with having to finish all the work and soon go nah we will just stay!

Our latest huge cost which we hadn't factored for is rendering the house due to conservation zone it has to be done a certain way (by hand so very costly!)

I’m in Devon.

We purchased our forever home (3 bed bungalow) in January 2025 and we are just coming to the finishing stages now.

It was a probate property and previous owners had lived there since the 60s when it was a new build - we had to complete gut the property back to brick and start again - we also added a rear extension to create a new kitchen and dining area - and created a 4th bedroom as a result in the old kitchen area
We purchased the property for £185k (severely reduced, other properties selling on the same street for £350k - £400k (the executors just wanted it sold) - we have spent to date so far, £130k and will probably have to spend another £20k as we want to put a driveway on the front as well as a few other bits…. Will take our total investment up to £335k which has come under budget! We planned to spend £350k all in all!
Not interested in the re-sell market as we won’t be selling but think we’ve done well and the high standard that we’ve got it up to!

It wasn’t all plain sailing though - VERY LONG hours when not at work, managing contractors, ordering supplies etc.

We are starting ours spring 2026, been living in it for 3 years now and planning was rejected once so back to the drawing board and fingers crossed we can start.

Is anyone seeing any reduction in building costs and trades? We did a large scale £350k extension in 2020 so I’m wondering with the economic outlook if timings maybe on our side again?

I’m actually thinking of delaying again, in the hope it comes back down to decent levels.

We got hit last time with wood pricing, but were otherwise very lucky.

Good progress @Yemelade but that is very sad about the history. It has a fresh start with you now and it seems very appropriate in the circumstances that there is a fair degree of ripping out the old and in with the new.

After a long lull on the inside of the house I am back and armed with a sledge hammer to get a stud wall down and a staircase out to restore the room that is now out kitchen back to original size. Hoping to do it myself, cost to date £37 for a new saw and am planning to do tip runs, first one done. Will reuse the timber from the stud work elsewhere.

Garden going really well and very different to the jungle it was. Also had a go at the front which looks significantly better though not yet finished.

We had a pin prick sized leak in a central heating pipe under the floor in the middle of the house. It sprayed upwards onto a wall which gradually got damp.

Just saying, in case this is relevant for your mysterious damp problem

What sort of hoover? We found that Dysons just can't cope with reno dust, especially plaster dust, you're having to take the filter out and wash it out after half an hour so no hoover until tomorrow when the filter is dry, and I:m told plaster dust can actually burn the motor out, but the Henry we bought has coped with everything we've thrown at it in our 5-year reno - mortar chunks, sawdust, general muck, and plaster included, which is usually the worst because it's very fine dust. I've even done the patio with it after it was grouted and dry to get rid of the loose grout (it was the washed-in stuff). If it seems to be sucking less, like after three days of thick plaster dust and other mess, we just take the filter out and bang it against the wall outside, and it's good to go again. It also connects to my poshest sander, which is great, as that means I get next to no sawdust.

your Budget is way way too low…

@creamsnugjumper Absolutely no signs of better pricing in neither labour nor materials. Quite the opposite. Wanted to start works after winter but teams are already booked from Marvh-26 onwards. So trying to figure out if we can do it over the winter (no discount). I should receive the quote for the works at mine next week or so (architect still finishing the drawings…) and I’m already regretting my life choices….

Best of luck with your DIY! Of all the things we've done so far, ripping things out has been a favourite!

One was just an old Vax we had as a spare/upstairs hoover, the other was our shark 🥲 we ended up investing in a wet vac industrial type hoover, but that's also not the best! Might have to try a Henry. Thanks for the tip!

I've addressed this several times in the thread already.

To summarise:

• it's a lifetime house and therefore not a race to get everything done right now. Time will afford us the ability to save and pay for more renovation as needed.
• from our original budget, we have a little still in the bank and have already completed approximately 80% of what we set out to do, including paying for things that were unexpected and unplanned.
• This thread (and me as the OP) are not seeking opinions from others regarding viability of my budget. This thread is intended to be a space to share in mutual frustrations and experiences. Feel free to contribute in that respect if you wish to do so.

We bought a special wet and dry hoover from screw fix just for dealing with construction dust so we didn't break our normal hoover. It was only about £60 and you can pretty much hoover rubble up with it.

Ohh they are cheaper than I thought https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb774vac-1300w-16ltr-wet-dry-vacuum-220-240v/826KH?tc=NT8&gclsrc=aw.ds&ds_rl=1243318&ds_rl=1241687&ds_rl=1245250&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=907902657&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyayWv4O8jwMVjo9QBh0_Fhn5EAQYASABEgIjxvD_BwE

My project to pick away at now is a new roof on the coach house. I can't get anyone to give us any quotes so I am going to try to trick a builder I know into doing in as a set of small jobs. Might even end up cheaper and I can probably do some of the labour. Just waiting for him to quote for the structural ties then I will see if I can get him to do the timber repairs for the roof.
Has anyone done a reroof?

Wow Yemelade that's an amazing history! You were very good to give the house another chance after getting a bad feeling. I completely discounted a lovely house when I got a weird creepy feeling and toddler DC started screaming for no reason!
This is going to sound very woo, but whatever happened in that house isn't the fault of the house itself is it- the blame lies with the perpetrator. I always think of houses as being alive and having their own characters!
With you on the budget thing too. I am trying to buy a doer upper (waiting for the survey! Eek!) and I don't have a massive budget. I want to make sure the house is weatherproof and warm, and everything else can wait. I may never have the money to do it all! Doesn't stop me from having plans (and a vast Pinterest board...)

Darn.. I guess it’s due to the lack of trades rather than materials. Looks like I’ll be rolling my sleeves up again and juggling the individual trades.

has anyone ver used overseas trades? There is pub and a house near us where they are using polish teams that they have essentially employed for 6 months and are sorting accommodation etc. we have space to do this and I was wondering if anyone had ever looked into this as an option? Language wouldn’t be an issue as my DH can speak a few languages.

also does everyone here manage they own trader or do you get building firms in, I have no experience of hiring an entire building firm but it does tempt me!